New ancient ape from Türkiye challenges the story of human origins

PHYS.ORG ^

[FarCenter]

A new fossil ape from an 8.7-million-year-old site in Türkiye is challenging long-accepted ideas of human origins and adding weight to the theory that the ancestors of African apes and humans evolved in Europe before migrating to Africa between nine and seven million years ago.

Analysis of a newly identified ape named Anadoluvius turkae recovered from the Çorakyerler fossil locality near Çankırı with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Türkiye, shows Mediterranean fossil apes are diverse and are part of the first known radiation of early hominines—the group that includes African apes (chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas), humans and their fossil ancestors.

The findings are described in a study published today in Communications Biology co-authored by an international team of researchers led by Professor David Begun at the University of Toronto (U of T) and Professor Ayla Sevim Erol at Ankara University.

"Our findings further suggest that hominines not only evolved in western and central Europe but spent over five million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually dispersing into Africa, probably as a consequence of changing environments and diminishing forests," said Begun, professor in the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T. "The members of this radiation to which Anadoluvius belongs are currently only identified in Europe and Anatolia."

[Boogieman]

“Until we do.”

LOL. Okay, if we somehow invent either a time machine or develop immortality, then you might turn out to be right. Neither of those things has happened yet though.

“Forensic science is the application of criminal and civil laws.”

Well, forensics is often used to denote the use of science in ways that relate to the criminal or civil justice system, but it is not “application of criminal and civil laws”.

However, that’s not the sense of the word that I am using anyway. The word “forensic” has a more general definition, which involves scientific analysis of evidence in an attempt to reconstruct a past event. That’s the way I am using it, to distinguish it from actual experimental science that can deals with events that are ongoing, or recurring, and happen on timescales that humans are capable of observing and replicating.

[ought-six]

“Well, forensics is often used to denote the use of science in ways that relate to the criminal or civil justice system, but it is not ‘application of criminal and civil laws’.”

It is the application of many disciplines (especially the sciences) to criminal and civil laws. There are forensic archeologists, forensic accountants, forensic engineers, etc. I dealt with them quite often in my career (I am retired, now).

“The word “forensic” has a more general definition, which involves scientific analysis of evidence in an attempt to reconstruct a past event.”

No, it doesn’t have a more general definition. The word “forensic” derives from the root word “forum,” which denotes a public place for judicial and public business; basically, a gathering for a public purpose, the most common of which was — and is — for a court proceeding or for the purpose of conducting government business, or debate.

Your “general definition” of “recreating a past event” is called anthropology, and its integral specialized discipline, archeology. That’s why we have the disciplines of forensic archeology and forensic anthropology (which my wife studied in college), which deal with evidence used in law.